Bibliometric analysis of authorship trends and collaboration dynamics over the past three decades of BONE's publication history

Abstract

The existence of a gender gap in academia has been a hotly debated topic over the past several decades. It has been argued that due to the gender gap, it is more difficult for women to obtain higher positions. Manuscripts serve as an important measurement of one's accomplishments within a particular field of academia. Here, we analyzed, over the past 3 decades, authorship and other trends in manuscripts published in BONE, one of the premier journals in the field of bone and mineral metabolism. For this study, one complete year of manuscripts was evaluated (e.g. 1985, 1995, 2005, 2015) for each decade. A bibliometric analysis was then performed of authorship trends for those manuscripts. Analyzed fields included: average number of authors per manuscript, numerical position of the corresponding author, number of institutions collaborating on each manuscript, number of countries involved with each manuscript, number of references, and number of citations per manuscript. Each of these fields increased significantly over the 30-year time frame (p<10^-6). The gender of both the first and corresponding authors was identified and analyzed over time and by region. There was a significant increase in the percentage of female first authors from 23.4% in 1985 to 47.8% in 2015 (p=0.001). The percentage of female corresponding authors also increased from 21.2% in 1985 to 35.4% in 2015 although it was not significant (p=0.07). With such a substantial emphasis being placed on publishing in academic medicine, it is crucial to comprehend the changes in publishing characteristics over time and geographical region. These findings highlight authorship trends in BONE over time as well as by region. Importantly, these findings also highlight where challenges still exist.

Keywords: Authorship trends; Bibliometric analysis; Bone; Gender.

Figure 1

Maps showing the countries and states/provinces from which publications are originating. Map of A) North America; B) Europe; C) Oceania; and D) Asia showing the countries or states/provinces contributing published manuscripts. Black represents the highest percentage of manuscripts published in the country or state/province. White indicates no manuscripts were published in the country or state/province.

Figure 2

Bibliometric trends over time. A) Number of published manuscripts meeting inclusion criteria. B) Number of co-authors and corresponding author position. C) Number of countries from which authors on manuscripts reside and the number of institutions collaborating on published manuscripts. D) Length of published manuscripts. E) Number of references cited within each manuscript. F) Number of times each published manuscript was cited in other manuscripts. Data in B–F are presented as the mean ± 1 standard deviation of the mean.

Figure 3

Trends by region. A) Number of published manuscripts meeting inclusion criteria. B) Number of co-authors and corresponding author position. C) Number of countries from which authors on manuscripts reside and the number of institutions collaborating on published manuscripts. D) Length of published manuscripts. E) Number of references cited within each manuscript. F) Number of times each published manuscript was cited in other manuscripts. Data in B–F are presented as the mean ± 1 standard deviation of the mean. North America = NA, EU = Europe, OC = Oceania.

Figure 4

Percentage of female corresponding and first authors by time and region. A) Gender distribution of corresponding authors over time. B) Gender distribution of corresponding authors by region. C) Gender distribution of first authors over time. D) Gender distribution of first authors by region.

Figure 5

Gender combinations between first and corresponding authors over time. MM = both first and corresponding authors are male, MF = first author is male and corresponding author is female, FM = first author is female and corresponding author is male, and FF = both first and corresponding authors are female.

Figure 6

Changes over time by region. A) Percentage of editorial board members from Asia, Europe, and North America. B) Percentage of BONE manuscripts originating from Asia, Europe and North America.

Figure 7

Percentage of female first authors, corresponding authors, and editorial board members over time. These changes were highly significant upon a 3 way χ² test (year by gender by role [1^st author, corresponding author, editorial board]), p<0.000001.